THERE has been confusing statements and headlines on the discontinuation of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine supply for National Immunisation COVID-19 Programme (NIP).
Referring to published news reports yesterday, Pharmaniaga Bhd clarified that the group has contacted the relevant parties and found that the statements and headlines of the news reports are misleading and untrue.
The pharmaceutical arm of Boustead Holdings Bhd’s group of companies said its still under contractual obligation with the Federal Government to supply 12 million doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 Fill & Finish vaccines through its high-tech plant Pharmaniaga LifeScience Sdn Bhd (PLS).
Yesterday (July 15), Reuters quoted Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba as saying that the country will stop administering the COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac once its supplies end as it has a sufficient number of other vaccines for its programme.
Malaysia will increasingly use the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines, Adham told a news conference. Malaysia has secured 12 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine so far which is enough to cover 18.75% of the population.
“Pharmaniaga is ready to provide additional supplies if the Federal Government intends to continue the usage of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines in NIP,” the company pointed out. “The group has made an offer of additional supply of two million doses to the Federal Government and is waiting for an official decision on it.”
Moreover, Pharmaniaga will continue to embark on its initiative to supply Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines to State Governments, government agencies and private sectors.
“These agencies have been waiting to procure Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines, while helping to speed up the completion of the NIP,” added Pharmaniaga.
Commenting further on its contractual obligation, Pharmaniaga said it obliges the company to supply the vaccines within seven months between May and November 2021.
Due to the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases from March 2021, Pharmaniaga has taken proactive steps to meet the needs of the country by expediting the supply of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines by importing finished vaccines from Sinovac to be distributed in parallel with the distribution of fill & finish vaccines by PLS.
With these efforts, Pharmaniaga has managed to supply a total of 12 million doses with the last batch of doses will be delivered on July 21 or four-and-a-half months ahead of the initial contract schedule.
The supply of 12 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines involved six million doses for the first injection and six million doses for the second injection.
Since the number of first dose injections in all states is close to six million recipients, the Health Ministry (MOH) has instructed ceasing of first dose administration and to continue with second dose administration.
This is to avoid insufficient number of vaccines for second dose if more than six million recipients are administered with first dose.
At the close of today’s trading, Pharmaniaga was down 14.5 sen or 13.94% to 89.5 sen with 96.97 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM1.17 bil. – July 16, 2021
